One of the things on my must-have list when we were looking for houses two years ago was a dining room. A real dining room and not just an eat-in kitchen space. I grew up eating around the dining room table with my family almost every night at dinner and that was something I wanted to carry into adulthood and with my own family.
Our dining room is a really good size, so I wanted a proportionate table. Specifically, for me, a live edge table. Though our house is definitely not my style (as in it being a new-ish build) it had a proper dining room with the space for a large table. Sold.
My father-in-law does a lot of wood working, so we basically sweet talked him into building us a new dining room table. He has a small pile of live edge red oak slabs that we were able to pick through. We had to find three good slabs that would be pieced together in order to get the size we wanted. I would have loved to have one single, giant slab of walnut but that would have been expensive. Red oak it was!
I graciously gave up my garage spot so we could have a work shop area big enough to do the project. I don’t know all of the technicalities of how the table was made and put together, but there was A LOT of measuring, sanding, straightening of edges, clamps, adding butterflies, poly and sealing.
Our final table is roughly 44 inches wide and 98 inches long. It’s huge! It seats 8 comfortably with the space to squeeze in a few more chairs when needed. The hardest part of the project (for me) was deciding the stain. We have medium toned hickory floors and the room is also painted a rich navy with the entire back wall being a bay window that lets in a lot of light. I didn’t want the table to blend in with the room, but compliment it instead. So going light it was. However, with the wood being red oak it has red undertones, which is not really my thing. I think we tested six different stains and ultimately went with a good old natural to let the wood itself and grain really stand out. I am so happy with how it turned out!
For the base of the table, we both agreed that we wanted black metal legs. I found a seller on Etsy that custom built tube steel t-shaped legs, which is exactly what we were looking for. The table top itself weighs 175 lbs, so we needed a base to support not only the weight, but also the length.
The chairs were the second hardest decision of the whole project. I said I will never again have upholstered dining chairs with kids in the house, but everything I was naturally gravitating towards was upholstered. I thought I wanted light gray or white upholstered arm chairs to play off the curtains, but knew that wasn’t practical. I also didn’t want metal chairs because those can feel so cold and uncomfortable. We ended up finding these chairs and so far I’ve been very pleased with them. Inexpensive, clean lines, sturdy, comfortable and the height is perfect for what I was looking for.
This room feels so much more complete now that the table is done. We’re forever thankful to Tim’s dad for building us this table. It’s certainly a piece that you forever keep.
Room Sources
Paint: BM Van Deusen
Curtains: Amazon
Pink Canvas: Lindsay Letters (exact canvas no longer available)
Chairs: Wayfair
Light Fixture: Wayfair
Table Legs: Etsy
–m.